First Target
by FredNeverDied
Summary: Percy starts his new mission of helping the latest generation of demigods discover who they are and what they can become. No fluff. One-shot. "His plan could go a number of ways, many of them bad. Percy sighed. "It's fine," he told himself, "It's just Victoria. She's cool, she'll handle it well." But that didn't make confronting his first demigod child any easier."


_Most of the swim team terminology you can guess at, but a drag suit is either a large suit or a shirt you wear so that it drags in the water and makes you work harder. When it comes time for a meet, you swim without the drag and it makes swimming hard and fast feel easy. Like working out with ankle weights. If it wasn't obvious yet, I came up with this one at swim team. Gotta occupy my mind somehow._

* * *

_First Target_

Percy Jackson perched on the bleachers by the side of the school pool. He flipped through the pages of his coach's clipboard without really seeing the practice he'd made up for his swimmers this morning. His mind was far-off, busy thinking about his _real_ plan for today. He'd gotten some pointers from Chiron of course, but that didn't make this task any easier. His plan could go quite a number of ways, many of them bad.

Percy sighed.

"It's fine," he told himself, "It's just Victoria. She's a cool kid, she'll handle it well."

But that didn't make confronting his first demigod child any easier.

Chiron had told him about the mission five months before.

_"What's all this about?" Percy had asked, coming into the conference room in the Big House. Chiron was standing at the window, his arms crossed, looking out across the campgrounds. He pawed at the floor in a thoughtful way. That wasn't exactly a good sign._

_"Chiron?" Percy asked, after he'd waited a while. The centaur turned and looked at the twenty-year-old demigod. A smile was curling his mouth. That still wasn't exactly a good sign._

_"Percy," he said, "Do you remember when you met me?"_

_"_Yeeeeeah_," said Percy, not sure where this was going. "You were our cool, old Greek teacher in a magic wheelchair—Mr. Brunner."_

_"Very good," he said, "And do you remember _why_ I was teaching Greek history to teenagers?" In talking about it, he had reverted to using his teacher voice again._

_"Because you wanted to find me," Percy said, "You wanted to watch me to see if I was a demigod." He had the childish feeling that Chiron was grading his answers again and that he would get, _'Insufficient_,' if he left it at that. _

_"And you wanted to help me." Percy added._

_"Very good," Chiron murmured again. They were silent for a moment before Percy repeated,_

_"Chiron?"_

_"Percy I'm wondering if you're ready."_

_"Ready for what, sir?"_

_"Ready to help the next generation of demigods. I need more searchers out there and the satyrs can only do so much as they pretend to be teenagers."_

_"Sir? I don't really underst..."_

_"There's a girl at a nearby school, Belk Academy, who we believe may be a demigod. A half-sister of yours, even. That's what our satyr thinks but we need another eye. An older eye. The first semester is starting up and since I'm already engaged as Mr. Brunner at another school..."_

_"Chiron, are you asking...?"_

_"I think you're ready to be a teacher, Percy."_

Despite his initial reaction of _no-way-Jose_, Chiron had eventually brought him around to the idea; and, though he'd never admit it, especially not to Annabeth who had teased him mercilessly when it was announced that he'd be a seventh-grade teacher, he had discovered that he kind of, sort of, _liked_ the job. Well, after all, he _was_ an adult now and it _did_ get boring fighting the same counselors at camp all year. And in any case, he was earning an income, a big step, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by his proud mother. Or his girlfriend.

Plus, he got to hang out with some pretty cool kids all day, talk about the _one_ subject he was knowledgeable in (which was rather refreshing to feel smart), and now that winter had come around, he was coaching the swim team. It was the perfect opportunity to observe his target—the possible demigod, his own possible half-sister.

She was a small girl named Victoria with a teeny frame, skinny arms, and a couple art awards to her name. She had green eyes like him and thick brown hair, so that the poofy mane contrasted awkwardly with her small body. Not a whole lot of friends. He'd read her school file: single mom, remarried dad, poor district of town, multiple visits to the school counselor. She was healthy mentally and a good kid, but needed to unload every once and a while about a stressful home life. Apparently, she and her stepdad didn't get along well.

So, to recap: green eyes, check; messed up home, check; biological dad's location? check! And most importantly: dyslexic, ADHD, terrible in school, but brilliant in Greek. _Exceptional_ in fact. It was biggest clue he was going on right now, especially since the occasion when he ran across her fluently reading Ancient Greek three weeks ago...

_He was jogging towards his classroom so that he could get in and quickly throw a PowerPoint together for class. He'd meant to do it last night but Annabeth had come by the apartment and things had sort of...Focus Jackson. Greek. Teaching. No kissing. Right. Percy checked his watch. Twenty-minutes to lessons. Better run. _

_He was so distracted when he finally came upon his room, he almost missed the fact that there was a muttering voice coming from within. Percy skidded to a stop just outside and paused to listen. With a jolt, he realized that it was Victoria's voice. _

_"'But Pallas Athena rejoiced at the man's wisdom and judgment..." Percy recognized the passage from the Odyssey and started thinking quickly. The students hadn't been issued their Odyssey books and the only copy inside was his, in Ancient Greek. He almost did a triumphant air-punch._

_"'And straightway Athena prayed earnestly to the lord Poseidon: "Hear me, Poseidon, thou Earth-enfolder, and grudge not in answer to our prayer...'" Percy grinned to himself. This was his favorite passage; Victoria must have opened it up right where he'd marked it. Granted, Athena was undercover as man and it was necessary to pray to Poseidon to pull off the persona, but still. It was a good quote to have hanging on the wall. Especially when Annabeth came over._

_"'To Nestor, first of all, and to his sons vouchsafe renown...'"_

_"Bit of light reading?" Percy asked casually, coming into the room. Victoria jumped nearly a foot from her seat._

_"Just, uh, just skimming," she stammered, hurriedly closing the book up. "A-a couple words jumped out at me but not much else." She let out a little nervous laughter. "Just a little Greek I knowledge. I wanted to see if I could do it." _

_"That's cool," Percy said, nodding. "You can come in here whenever you feel like trying it again."_

_"Thanks," she said. She wouldn't meet his eyes and was packing her bag as quickly as possible. "Here," she said, holding the book out. Percy reached to take it and he suddenly noticed that Vic had some pretty deep cuts along the backs of her arms. Those weren't there yesterday. He remembered her wearing a jacket to her class earlier that morning but the jacket was now hanging on the back of her chair._

_"Hey," he said softly, looking pointedly at the cuts, "Vic...?"_

_"I actually have to go to class," she interrupted, snatching her hand away, grabbing the jacket, and slinging on her pack. "Thanks for reminding me, I would've forgotten. See you later Mr. Jackson!" And with a dash, she was gone._

He'd obsessed over those cuts for a week afterwards. They weren't with a knife, he could tell that much. He'd seen quite enough wounds in his time to be able to identify the differences without hardly thinking about it. The most important thing was that there were three, parallel. Like a claw. He was certain they weren't self-inflicted, he'd been to enough teacher seminars and dealt with enough troubled kids to recognize a case like that.

In the end he decided they were definitely claw marks. And that was no cat's claws either. He was thinking angry kobaloi; funny, tricky sprites who liked to follow Mr. D around for some reason. Percy's favorite god of drunks had recently done something to tick the spirits off, played a prank on them that involved wicked grape vines or something, and it had gotten out of hand. All that meant was that the demigods had to clean up the messes a couple dangerous rouges had made. Oh, and the sprites had gotten bigger with their rage.

Which meant that Vic knew. Or at least, she knew all the scary parts of being a demigod, none of the confusing parts, and hardly any of the fun parts. It was a horrible state to live in and Percy had made every effort to get her alone and try to explain things, but it was to no avail.

There'd been no way to corner her about the fact. Ever since the incident with the Odyssey, she'd avoided him outside of class and was always the first one to up and leave. However, her fear of his discovering the cuts again and questioning her wasn't enough to discourage her signing up for the swim team. She'd remarked that it was the only sport she was good at, and might as well get the P.E. credit.

So now here he was, sitting at the pool, just a week into practice, waiting for the rest of his swimmers to file in and start stretching. In order to draw Victoria out, he'd—okay _fine_, _Annabeth_ had come up with the plan, but he _had_ inspired it by bringing up the subject.

A blast of freezing air hit him and he looked up to see Victoria blowing in with the gust, the outer air tainting the warm steaminess of the aquatic center. She scurried over to the group, stripped off the thick sweat clothes down to her long-sleeved drag shirt, and started pulling on her cap and strapping on her goggles, stretching out her arms and warming up her legs, and never once meeting his eyes.

Percy got his feet and planted himself closer to her, whistling once for the team's attention. Talk immediately subsided and the forty-odd teenagers—ranging from sixth to eighth graders—looked up at him, ready for instruction.

"Alright swimmers," Percy said, clapping his hands together in full-on coach-mode. "Good to see you all bright and early this morning—"

"It's not even bright yet," whined a boy. "It's five o'clock in the morning."

"It's bright and beautiful in Athens," Percy replied easily, accidentally slipping into Greek-history-teacher-mode. "Which was...?"

"The capital of Greece," said a voice, "named after Athena because..."

"Nice job," Percy interrupted. He didn't really want to get into the explanation of how Athena beat out Poseidon and had the city named for her. He'd purposefully changed the essay to be something different on the test today...

"_Focus Jackson_," he thought. "Swim practice. Victoria. Plan. Right."

"Alrighty," Percy said, clapping his hands together again. "Let's get in and do a four hundred warm-up, don't want to see any breath-offs on the walls. Leaving on the top." He watched as the group moved towards the water, Victoria among them before he causally let out,

"Oh yeah, just a heads up, we've switched the pool from all chlorine...to salt."

Victoria let out a small yelp, jumping back from the water as if Percy had just told them it was treated with toxic waste.

"You okay there Vic?" Percy asked, casually glancing her way.

"I—" she plucked at her drag suit, "I—I don't really like saltwater."

"Yeah?" he said, "Saltwater? What's wrong with the ocean?"

"I didn't say ocean," she said hastily. "No ocean. I, uh, I _like_ the ocean. The sand, the gulls, the sun, but with the actual saltwater..." she trailed off, looking like she'd really rather liquidate into a puddle of freshwater and slide right through the cracks in the pooldeck tiles. Around them, the other swimmers were starting to disappear as they dove off into the water and it seemed like Victoria was more and more aware of how she was the very center of her coach's scrutiny.

"Come on," Percy thought. "I just need you to admit it first."

"Are you allergic to salt or something?" He prompted.

"No, I don't have any reactions," she mumbled. If he wasn't listening for it, he wouldn't have heard her just _barely_ emphasize '_I_.' As in '_I_ don't react..._though everything else will_.'

"But the water does," he said in a knowing voice. She nodded vaguely, glad that he had answered the question for her and hoping that if she affirmed, he would let her go. Little did she know, the trap had just snapped shut around her.

"Gotcha!" Percy thought triumphantly.

"Really?" he said mildly. "That's interesting. The _water_ reacts?" Victoria stopped nodding.

"What?" she squeaked guiltily. "_No!_ No that's _crazy_! The water doesn't react, why would the water react? What do you mean? I didn't say that." She had twisted her whole hand up in her shirt by now.

Percy leaned down so he was on eye level with her.

"But Victoria," he said gently. "You just said that—the—water—reacts." He punctuated each word with small splashes leaping out of the pool and flicking her in the face. She swallowed and was about to open her mouth to deny the matter again when it suddenly hit her what her swim coach had just done. They were standing ten feet away from the water and her team mates splashes couldn't have reached them. Percy watched as the amazement came into her expression, the flash of fear, the twinge of curiosity, and then the hope that blazed from her eyes. It confirmed all of Percy's theories.

"There are other people like you, Victoria," he said in a low voice. "You're not alone, okay? I'm here for you. I'll help you."

Her eyes momentarily welled up.

"You obviously don't need a drag shirt for practice," he said, his voice still gentle, "You're already one the best swimmers I've ever seen. So the cuts that you're covering up…?" Her bottom lip trembled. When she started speaking, her voice was so quiet Percy had to lean in closer to hear her.

"They wait for me after school," she whispered. "They're there once a week. I think they've almost figured out just where I live. They attack me, they're mad at me, and-and I don't even know what they _are_."

"The monsters?" he asked. She nodded

"I swing at them with my backpack and try to stick near public fountains. Sometimes the water just…" Victoria trialed off helplessly, unable to explain the phenomena she hardly wanted to admit existed.

"…Explodes in the direction you want it to go." Percy finished. "It's not much, but it does work." She nodded again and he noticed that her hands, balled up into fists, were shaking with restrained emotion. Percy could very easily remember those days. The fear, the anxiety, the uncertainty, the confusion. But Victoria had it even worse. She obviously already knew what she was, which made it easier for the monsters to find her, and she was already fighting them. It was a wonder that Camp Half-Blood's sources hadn't discovered her sooner; she was a Big Three child and was attracting legitimate monsters. And if she was handling the beasts on her own so well that there was _no news_ of it, not even with the _mortals_...Victoria really _was_ a force to be reckoned with.

He put a hand on one thin, shaking shoulder.

"I can protect you," he said. "And even better—I can teach you how to protect yourself."

"But what about—?" she began, when a voice from the water interrupted,

"Coach Jackson? I'm finished with the warm-up, what's next?"

"Yeah, I'm done too, what's the next set?"

"Vic, you're still dry!?"

"Aw hurry up Vicky, you haven't even started drills yet!"

"Hey!" Percy called, "I'm talking to Victoria right now, ya _vlakas_; she's getting in, don't worry."

"Vlakas means idiots!" shouted one proud student.

"What about the next—?" started another.

"Eight one-hundreds," Percy barked, "Pyramid breathing, three the first twenty-five, two the second, so on, I want a full hypoxic by the end, sprint the flags, leaving on the top, these are on a minute forty-five. If I see anyone breathe off the wall, they owe me an extra fifty sprints after practice. Heat One, Ready—Go!"

Ignoring the groans of the team, Percy turned back to Victoria. She'd composed her shaking and the hope in her eyes had mostly changed back to curiosity and confusion.

"Stay after school today," he said. "I'll explain everything and life will start making a little sense. I promise." She took a deep breath, and a bit of hope rejoined the light.

"Alright," she said, nodding, sounding determined and confident now. "Alright. But, Coach Jackson, can you just tell me what—?"

"Vic, c'mon! Your heat's leaving!"

"Yeah Vic, get in the water!"

She huffed and rolled her eyes at her team mates and Percy smiled sympathetically.

"I'll answer everything this afternoon. Promise…But if we keep this up, they'll be screaming mutiny that you're skipping out."

"Okay," she said smiling slightly, and turned towards the pool. Percy grinned to himself and sighed. _See?_ Piece of cake. Everything was under control. He'd help her with the current monster situation, maybe start walking her home or bringing Annabeth over and inviting her to stay with them, and by the end of next summer, Victoria would be ready to hold down the fort on her own. Or perhaps choose to stay at camp. Everything was under control.

"But Coach Jackson?" Snapping out of his thoughts, Percy glanced back and saw that she had frozen her foot just an inch above the water's surface

"Y-Yes?" He faltered.

"How do I keep the saltwater from forming a miniature tsunami?"

* * *

_Thanks for reading! Please drop a review, it makes my heart whistle a cute, little diddy._


End file.
